'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl' Review: A Delightful Crime Caper

The latest entry in the stopmotion series is a visual stunner with hilarity to spare

This is where I confess something potentially unforgivable: This was my first time seeing a Wallace and Gromit film. Yes, I am aware of the stop-motion animated series’ cinematic history, and I’m a big fan of the Aardman animated film Flushed Away. But I just never got around to watching the animated adventures of a loveable, if doddering, inventor and his far smarter dog. That’s all going to change, though, thanks to Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl! This utterly delightful crime caper wears its charm on is sleeve, with solid jokes aimed at both children and adults, and one of the best movie villains I’ve seen in a while.

We meet Wallace and Gromit after calling the police to report that they’ve captured master thief (and fake chicken) Feathers McGraw and secured the return of the Blue Diamond. All’s well that ends well, right? Not exactly. Wallace has become a bit too dependent on his inventions and has crafted a robot gnome that Gromit doesn’t approve of. When the gnome, NorBot, is hijacked by an incarcerated Feathers, and turned evil, it’s up to Gromit to find a way to save Wallace from going down for Feathers’ crimes.

Going in cold to this film, no doubt, increased my love for the coziness and whimsy of it all. Wallace spends his days waiting for Gromit to push a button and activate one of Wallace’s inventions. Meanwhile, Gromit just enjoys spending his days in the garden. Right away the film seeks to show our reliance on technology, whether that’s our Alexa or the burgeoning world of AI. Wallace doesn’t understand why Gromit would want to sit in his garden all day and watch plants die when a Norbot can make everything “clean and tidy!”

Unfortunately, Wallace has crafted the creepiest gnome this side of the Goosebumps franchise. The perpetually grinning Norbot is pure nightmare fuel before Feathers unleashes his evil plan. The perpetual happiness, shellacked grin and rosy cheeks, alongside Reece Shearsmith’s delightful vocal work, turns the Norbot from a vague annoyance to pure terror. But, for Gromit, the issue is less the Norbot’s inherent creepiness and more how it takes away the simple pleasures of life itself. It’s what makes Wallace such a great straight man in that he continually thinks he’s helping everyone but it only aids in his befuddlement.

Aardman is no slouch when it comes to the use of stop-motion — they have the Oscars to prove it — but Vengeance Most Fowl continues the trend of their blend of exaggerated expressions with real human emotion. This comes across the most in Gromit, who spends much of the performance being shocked and appalled at how the Norbot is working. For a character with no mouth, it’s remarkable how much expressions can be found with just some eyes and an eyebrow ridge.

So much of the film’s physical comedy is what makes it special, but none of them compare to the villainous Feathers McGraw who makes a meal out of his screentime. Feathers is cut from the James Bond school of villains — the scene of him stroking a white baby seal is iconic — as well as drawing from other evildoers; a scene of him working out to the Cape Fear theme is hilarious. But where Wallace and Gromit are so average, Feathers’ outsized persona balances them out. It’s easy to understand, in the world of the film, why they’d be involved with a supervillain like Feathers.

Directors Merlin Crossingham and Nick Park understand this world by now — this year marks the 35th anniversary of the first film A Grand Day Out — and they waste little time on building anything too outsize. The movie clocks in at a little over an hour and yet doesn’t come off as if it’s skimping on storytelling. Outside of Wallace, Gromit and Feathers’ interplay, two doofy cops, deal with the rise in crime and the retirement of the outgoing police chief. There’s a sense of breathlessness to the pace of the film, yet there are just as many opportunities for the audience to stop and revel in the warmth of Wallace and Gromit just interacting.

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is one of the year’s best animated movies. I’m gonna be devoting some serious time to more of their interactions. Just a peppy, beautifully animated cinematic equivalent to a warm blanket.

Grade: B+